Hey – Feed Your Kid However You See Fit #ISupportYou

There’s a new hashtag in town – #ISupportYou. It is a twitter stream filled with a bunch of amazing women basically telling other women to feed their kids however they see fit. I just finished perusing it and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Because really, don’t we have it hard enough without even thinking about how other people are choosing to feed their kids?

Honestly, the only response in the breastfeeding vs. formula feeding war that I can take anymore is “to each her own.” My newborn is seven weeks old and I promise you that I haven’t spent even one second thinking about how another mother out there chooses to feed her child. Seriously, not even one second. Why anyone would have an opinion on whether I breastfeed or formula feed is beyond me. Oh wait, no it’s not. I totally used to have an opinion about this.

Before I had my first child I was the best mother in the land. I was going to breastfeed for at least a year exclusively, because that is what everyone was telling me was the “best for baby!” I suffered through pumping every hour at night to keep my supply up and seven hour stretches of waitressing with boobs that were about to burst because I couldn’t pump at work. I cried. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t enjoy it. I did it because I felt too guilty to “give up.”

Now, I have thrown all of that out the window. I am working from home, but I still have some supply problems so if I need to leave my child I instruct whoever’s watching her to give her a formula bottle. I lose no sleep over this. She is healthy and gorgeous and I am sane. Can we all just be sane, and do whatever works for us?

Yes. Yes we can. If you are so inclined, take to Twitter with #ISupportYou and give a mom who may need a much-needed boost some words of support.